Differences in birth weight between immigrants’ and natives’ children in Europe and Australia: a LifeCycle comparative observational cohort study
2023
Florian, Sandra | Ichou, Mathieu | Panico, Lidia | Pinel-Jacquemin, Stéphanie | Vrijkotte, Tanja G. M. | Ginkel, Margreet W. Harskamp-Van | Huang, Rae-Chi | Carson, Jennie | Rodriguez, Loreto Santa Marina | Subiza-Pérez, Mikel | Vrijheid, Martine | Fernández-Barrés, Sílvia | Yang, Tiffany C. | Wright, John | Corpeleijn, Eva | Cardol, Marloes | Isaevska, Elena | Moccia, Chiara | Kooijman, Marjolein N. | Voerman, Ellis | Jaddoe, Vincent | Welten, Marieke | Spada, Elena | Rebagliato, Marisa | Beneito, Andrea | Ronfani, Luca | Charles, Marie-Aline | Institut national d'études démographiques (INED) | Centre de recherche sur les inégalités sociales (Sciences Po, CNRS) (CRIS) ; Sciences Po (Sciences Po)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) | Laboratoire Interdisciplinaire Solidarités, Sociétés, Territoires (LISST) ; École des hautes études en sciences sociales (EHESS)-Université Toulouse - Jean Jaurès (UT2J) ; Université de Toulouse (UT)-Université de Toulouse (UT)-École Nationale Supérieure de Formation de l'Enseignement Agricole de Toulouse-Auzeville (ENSFEA)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Ecole d'Ingénieurs de Purpan (INP - PURPAN) ; Institut National Polytechnique (Toulouse) (Toulouse INP) ; Université de Toulouse (UT)-Université de Toulouse (UT)-Institut National Polytechnique (Toulouse) (Toulouse INP) ; Université de Toulouse (UT) | University of Amsterdam [Amsterdam] = Universiteit van Amsterdam (UvA) | Edith Cowan University (ECU) | Melbourne School of Population and Global Health [Melbourne] ; University of Melbourne | BioDonostia Health Research Institute = Instituto de Investigación Sanitaria Biodonostia | Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Epidemiología y Salud Pública = Consortium for Biomedical Research of Epidemiology and Public Health (CIBERESP) | Agència de Salut Pública de Barcelona (ASPB) | Bradford Institute for Health Research, Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Bradford, UK (BIHR) | University Medical Center Groningen [Groningen] (UMCG) | Università degli studi di Torino = University of Turin (UNITO) | Erasmus University Medical Center [Rotterdam] (Erasmus MC) | Azienda Ospedaliero Universitaria Meyer [Firenze] = Meyer Children's University Hospital [Florence] (AOU Meyer) | Universitat Jaume I = Jaume I University | Institute for Maternal and Child Health - IRCCS “Burlo Garofolo” [Trieste] | Etude longitudinale française depuis l'enfance (UMS : Ined-Inserm-EFS) (ELFE) ; Institut national d'études démographiques (INED)-EFS-Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (INSERM) | Centre for Research in Epidemiology and Statistics | Centre de Recherche Épidémiologie et Statistiques (CRESS (U1153 / UMR_A 1125)) ; Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (INSERM)-Université Paris Cité (UPCité)-Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement (INRAE) | ANR-11-LABX-0066,SMS/SSW,Structurations des mondes sociaux(2011) | ANR-11-EQPX-0038,RE-CO-NAI,Plateforme de REcherche sur les COhortes d'enfants suivis depuis la NAIssance(2011) | European Project: 733206,H2020,H2020-SC1-2016-RTD,LIFECYCLE(2017)
International audience
Show more [+] Less [-]English. Objective: Research on adults has identified an immigrant health advantage, known as the ‘immigrant health paradox’, by which migrants exhibit better health outcomes than natives. Is this health advantage transferred from parents to children in the form of higher birth weight relative to children of natives?Setting Western Europe and Australia.Participants: We use data from nine birth cohorts participating in the LifeCycle Project, including five studies with large samples of immigrants’ children: Etude Longitudinale Française depuis l’Enfance—France (N=12 494), the Raine Study—Australia (N=2283), Born in Bradford—UK (N=4132), Amsterdam Born Children and their Development study—Netherlands (N=4030) and the Generation R study—Netherlands (N=4877). We include male and female babies born to immigrant and native parents.Primary and secondary outcome measures: The primary outcome is birth weight measured in grams. Different specifications were tested: birth weight as a continuous variable including all births (DV1), the same variable but excluding babies born with over 4500 g (DV2), low birth weight as a 0–1 binary variable (1=birth weight below 2500 g) (DV3). Results using these three measures were similar, only results using DV1 are presented. Parental migration status is measured in four categories: both parents natives, both born abroad, only mother born abroad and only father born abroad.Results: Two patterns in children’s birth weight by parental migration status emerged: higher birth weight among children of immigrants in France (+12 g, p<0.10) and Australia (+40 g, p<0.10) and lower birth weight among children of immigrants in the UK (−82 g, p<0.05) and the Netherlands (−80 g and −73 g, p<0.001) compared with natives’ children. Smoking during pregnancy emerged as a mechanism explaining some of the birth weight gaps between children of immigrants and natives.Conclusion: The immigrant health advantage is not universally transferred to children in the form of higher birth weight in all host countries. Further research should investigate whether this cross-national variation is due to differences in immigrant communities, social and healthcare contexts across host countries.
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